Klarinet Archive - Posting 000913.txt from 1999/09
From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: Re: [kl] The practice of playing solos (the Mozart controversy)
Date: Sun, 26 Sep 1999 19:01:20 -0400
On Mon, 27 Sep 1999 00:27:12 +0200, rstein@-----.nl said:
> Sorry, but I do not understand why you professional people are
> devoting such a lot of time to a discussion on how to play Mozart --
> or, for that, a certain passage in the Copland concerto. There is too
> much personal taste in both how to interpret a piece, and in the
> evaluation by third parties as to that interpretation.
It's not so much that we want to discuss how we play these things, but
that we want to discuss *what we take into account* when we are deciding
how to play these things.
The world in which the decisions are made is in question.
> When someone starts to study a piece -- even if he or she has studied
> it a hundred times before -- in my opinion he or she must try to find
> the way of playing it that plaese HIM OR HER best,
Very good, I agree. But what pleases him or her best, may depend very
much on his or her changing attitude to the piece, based on his or her
journey of discovery vis-a-vis him or herself and the piece.
And this attitude may vary very much according to the context in which
he or she finds herself, or himself, when deciding about such things;
and the willingness with which he or she has approached different ideas,
or engaged in discussions such as the ones on this list.
Mostly what I have tried to do here, and continue to try to do, is to
expand the context in which we as performers look at the music. At the
end of the process, my readers may not have agreed with my conclusions,
but their world will hopefully have been expanded.
> I remember meeting Messiaen in I think the year 1974, when the Utrecht
> conservatory ran a Messiaen project he attended, and being one of the
> very few people fluent in the French language I automatically came to
> discuss with him some points. When I asked him rightaway about a
> female student singer, he only answered me she had a very beautiful
> voice, and had a great career ahead, but he did not give his opinion
> about the way she sang some of his songs, he said it was her way to
> see these songs, and it was a good and valid way, though different
> from what he had expectedd to hear. And he added that was a great
> compliment!
Well, that's what he (as one composer among hundreds) said to you on
that occasion. Having a more extended acquaintance with him, and
having worked for even more extended periods with other composers too, I
think that was a one-off.
> So I think the issue you people
wow, thanks for labelling us
> discussing the topic of how to play are having a vain discussion
> without right or wrong.
No, we're having a conversation about the context in which we approach
how we should play.
> The whole topic burns down to the issue:
>
> Either you play music on a purely commercial base, and adapt yourself
> completely to the taste of the public. Then, when lucky, you will end
> up very, very rich, look at Frank Sinatra or the spice Girls. Or you
> are sincere, and play what you like the way tou like.
I totally agree with this. But to play 'the way you like' is a big
responsibility.
Read "The Neverending Story" by Michael Ende.
The hero in this story is given the power do 'do what you will'.
What he finds is that, given the power to do what he wills, the decision
about exactly what he wills is not so easy. And is the most important
thing.
Tony
--
_________ Tony Pay
|ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd Tony@-----.uk
| |ay Oxford OX2 6RE GMN family artist: www.gmn.com
tel/fax 01865 553339
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